About This PhD Project

Project Description

A PhD position is currently available in the Surface Physics Group at the Institute of Applied Physics at the TU Vienna, Austria.

The PhD candidate will join a highly successful ongoing project in our lab based around iron oxide surfaces. In recent work, we discovered that a particular surface of magnetite (Fe3O4) stabilizes single metal adatoms to unprecedented temperatures, and we would like to use this remarkable model system to study how single atoms can catalyse chemical reactions. The successful candidate will perform scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements of active model single-atom catalyst (SAC) systems to understand how they work at the atomic scale. The project will involve close collaboration with surface chemists, who will measure the reactivity of the systems, and theoreticians, who will conduct calculations to uncover reaction mechanisms. The PhD candidate will be supervised by Prof. Gareth Parkinson.

The ideal candidate has a master degree either in physics or chemistry, or a related field. Previous experience with ultrahigh vacuum methods is desirable. Good team working, English language skills, and presentation skills are a must for these positions, as well as the motivation to collaborate within an interdisciplinary research framework.

For further information please visit our group website http://www.iap.tuwien.ac.at/www/surface/index